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PTSD keeps fighting after the battle ends

Veterans' spouses sit and talk during a session on PTSD at Baytree Behavioral Health in Melbourne, Fla. The number of veterans suffering from PTSD is expected to continue increasing with the U.S involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan winding down. (AP Photo/Florida Today, Craig Bailey)

Scott Fairchild talks with veterans during a session on PTSD at Baytree Behavioral Health in Melbourne, Fla. The number of veterans suffering from PTSD is expected to continue increasing with the U.S involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan winding down. (AP Photo/Florida Today, Craig Bailey)

MELBOURNE, FLA. | On a recent Saturday morning, more than two dozen men suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder packed into a room for group therapy to share their feelings of anxiety, anger, fear, guilt and hyper vigilance.

In another room, their wives aired their own difficulties and learned how to cope with their spouses’ PTSD.

The scene is repeated several times a week throughout the country as more veterans seek help for the “invisible wound of war.”

The number of veterans suffering from PTSD is expected to continue increasing with the U.S involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan winding down.

“I think what we’re going to see is thousands and thousands” more cases, said Scott Fairchild, a Melbourne psychologist who specializes in treating PTSD, primarily among veterans. “There is going to be a segment that is going to stuff it in a closet. This festers for a number of years.”

Between 11 and 20 out of every 100 veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars suffer with PTSD, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs.

The VA believes that as many as 10 percent of Gulf War veterans and about 30 percent of Vietnam veterans suffer from PTSD.

PTSD is a condition that can develop after a person experiences or witnesses a traumatic or terrifying event, such as in war, sexual assault, and disasters, in which serious physical harm occurred or was threatened.

Symptoms can come quickly or come to the surface many years later. They include nightmares, sleeplessness, anxiety, hyper vigilance, anger and feelings of guilt.

Army veteran Paul Benitez served in Desert Storm and the Iraq War and spent several years working as a process server before his anxiety and hyper vigilance became a hindrance in his everyday life.

Benitez’s feeling of always having to have his guard up is only one of the many symptoms of PTSD that war veterans and others suffer through. While serving in Iraq in 2003, Benitez and a team of about five soldiers and two Iraqi police would guard the gate at their small forward base, while other soldiers went on missions. He said no one should have to see the carnage that resulted from the fighting in Desert Storm and the Iraq War.

“We were stuck at the gate, so we were like sitting ducks waiting for anyone to come in and attack, which happened a few times,” he said.

Benitez, 48, of Palm Bay, Fla., said that even years later he is still very vigilant and had to learn to stop at traffic lights, something he did not do while serving overseas because of the threat of attack.

“Ten years later I’m still trying to deprogram myself,” said Benitez, who served eight years active duty in the Army and nine years in the Florida National Guard.

According to the PTSD Foundation of America, one in three troops returning from war are being diagnosed with serious Post-Traumatic Stress symptoms, but fewer than 40 percent of those will seek help.

Many Vietnam War veterans are just now dealing with PTSD.

Dave Miller never sought help because he did not think he needed it.

“I never thought I had PTSD,” said Miller, a door gunner on a Huey helicopter in the Vietnam War .

Recently diagnosed with PTSD, Miller, 68, also of Palm Bay, said he saw a lot of combat but always thought that others had seen more than he did, so he could not complain about anything.

“I realize now that I pretty much been lying to myself for 47 years,” he said.

Psychologist Fairchild said many people use work or other things to try to suppress the condition.

He said troops having difficulties have at times been told to “suck it up,” and move on. That puts off treatment and prolongs the suffering.

“If we stuff it in the closet, it builds up and pushes on the door,” he said. “We carry more baggage if we don’t deal with it. The emotional bucket starts to overflow.”

Suppressing such emotions for a long time can lead to them being released in a big wave, Fairchild said.

“PTSD is like being hit by shrapnel,” he said. “It goes in and it stays there. When it comes out, it hurts.”

What’s the solution to PTSD?

Some veterans said that with therapy, they have learned to control some of the symptoms.

But they said dealing with PTSD is an ongoing process.

“If you hear from somebody that there is this magic cure for PTSD, just keep on going down the road,” Fairchild said.

“I personally would say that there are no specific cures for PTSD, but we become increasingly better at managing the symptoms,” he added.

Talk therapy is the most common treatment.

Diane Short, administrator of TogetherWeServed.com, said she tries to find help for the veterans members of the military-only social forum she runs.

Many of the 1.5 million members discuss their difficulties with PTSD online.

“No matter what era they served in, no matter what war they served in, they all wore the same boots,” she said. “I talk to these guys daily through chat and email. We try to find them local help.”

Veterans suffering from PTSD said they want people to understand their condition, but that they do not want any special treatment or for anyone to see them differently.

“The image in the public right now is a ticking time bomb,” Fairchild said, “and that’s not always so.”